I must first open this review with an obnoxious: Howdy, Greenville, I'm baaaaaack! Too long pregnant, sick, and on bed rest. Missed all y'all. Now with baby #2, and itching to get back to theatering.
So, first up:
Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers at Warehouse Theatre. Again I will interrupt this review. Opening weekend: sold out (I couldn't even get a seat!) This weekend: sold out. Next weekend: selling fast. If you already know you want to catch this show (and I think you will), then I recommend you stop reading and go buy your tickets. Now.
The review. Lost in Yonkers is the story of Jay and Arty, two boys who get left with Grannie-from-Hades while Dad goes off in search of work. It's the story of all the things they learn about while dodging her cane: moxie, mustard soup, dark family secrets, love.
The actors playing the boys--Sam Farnsworth (Jay) and Graham Poore (Arty)--ain't too shabby. As my date said, "If you'd told me there were going to be kids in this show, I wouldn't have come. But these guys are good." They're at ease with themselves and each other--so much at ease and playful that I assumed they were brothers in fact. Wrong. Kudos Sam and Graham. You were great, and it's a good thing you learned some moxie, because I wanted to march right up there and protect you from Grandma (Shirley Sarlin, Greenville legend, making another of her legendary appearances.)
And I do mean "another." Ms. Sarlin. I will confess to being frustrated at the thought of seeing you play yet another cute little elderly Jewess (please please please could someone write you a different sort of role?) Wrong again. Elderly. Yes. Jewish. Yes. Cute? Cuss, No! This is the Grandma who locks her kids in the closet and clobbers 'em if they steal "the salt off a pretzel." Ja, und Frau Sarlin, you scared me, you made me mad, you made me very sad. (I guess I should thank you for this?)
I definitely won't be thanking you for how you raised your kids or for the awful awful things you did to them. Rick Connor, you make the best kind of gangster uncle a kid could ever hope for. And Kerrie Seymour...
Kerrie Seymour. You are why people need to see this show. Folks, this girl is heartbreaking. And funny. So transparent and quirky I loved her to bits. I loved her so much I wanted to sew copies of her hideous dresses and wear them around town and tell everybody her story. I wanted to see her win. I wanted her to have an impossibly happiest happy ending.
But Pulitzer Prize-Winning** plays don't have those cliche happy-happy endings. They have mostly-happy endings, where people learn how to deal with what life's dealt: like lameness, family, war, family, debt...family. And that's what makes this play one that sticks with you. All the life-interruptions and mess of the play don't just pouf and disappear. You laugh through it, cry through it, and hopefully, grow right along with the characters.
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Neil Simon's "Lost In Yonkers"
Presented by Warehouse Theatre, 37 Augusta St., Greenville (864) 235-6948. Through September 10. Tickets $30.
**Pulitzer Prize-Winning plays also tend to be above critique. Please forgive me, I love Mr. Simon's work, but that was one long (dry?) opening scene. And most of the exposition, don't we get that later in the play? Minor quibble, I know, especially for such a wonderful play. If you get antsy in the beginning, just sit tight. The writing (and acting) starts to crackle soon.